It seems that, for all the hot air he has released on the subject, the Prime Minister still doesn’t know how to talk about climate change with any credibility.

Speaking at the United Nations Climate Change Summit in Paris, Key condemned countries that are “calling for emissions reductions on one hand while subsidising emissions on the other.”

What Key refused to acknowledge is that his own government is actually calling for carbon reductions while subsidising polluters. Under the government’s emissions trading scheme, a carbon market meant to create ‘incentives’ to reduce emissions, our biggest polluters are effectively excluded from paying for their carbon emissions.

This exception works like a subsidy in all but name. Recent research out of the World Bank ranked New Zealand’s carbon market as one of the least effective in the world (in part, I would argue, because it’s riddled with exceptions).

Yet not only is our biggest polluter excluded from our primary carbon reduction scheme, the government is also putting pressure on state owned enterprises to lift their return to the government which, in KiwiRail’s case, could lead to a return to fossil fuels.

KiwiRail is currently considering downgrading its fleet on the North Island Main Trunk Line from an electric fleet to a diesel-powered one. While the rest of the world is transitioning to clean energy, KiwiRail is considering a downgrade.

Diesel power isn’t the future, it’s the past, and we’re returning there because the government is starving our rail infrastructure of capital investment.

Instead of developing a smart, low carbon transport system the government’s backwards policy is forcing KiwiRail to make poor short-term decisions to save a few bucks, but it will just end up costing us a fortune in the long run.

For these reasons it’s difficult to see how Key can grandstand in Paris while his government is failing to reduce carbon emissions at home. After so many failures in international forums it’s arguably more important to focus on implementing good domestic policy as opposed to new international machinery.

In the meantime the public, bewildered by disconnect between rhetoric and reality, sits on its hands as politicians shout at each other at cross-purposes. Arguably this is precisely what the government wants: a confused public that has the impression its government is doing something to combat climate change while, in reality, the politicians can continue doing exactly the opposite.

The Rail and Maritime Transport Union is questioning a KiwiRail proposal to progressively relocate its Zero Harm personnel from Wellington to Auckland.

“The purpose of the Zero Harm team is to drive KiwiRail’s performance in health and safety. Rail is a potentially dangerous industry and the Zero Harm team plays a vital role,” said Wayne Butson, General Secretary, Rail & Maritime Transport Union.

“They need to work closely with health and safety regulators, all of whom are Wellington based, so it seems nonsensical to us to relocate this team to Auckland.”

“All it will mean is significantly increased travel costs for either the health and safety regulators, or KiwiRail – and either way its the public who pays.”

“Rail is a national transport business and so it makes sense to have the corporate functions where the seat of government is, and also in the centre of the network.”

“Given the significant pressure in terms of transport and housing that Auckland faces, it is also not clear to me why a government department or SOE would want to make this worse by shifting significant numbers of its workforce to the city,” Wayne Butson said.

The union for rail workers says that greater use of grade separation such as over bridges or underpasses are needed to properly protect pedestrians from rail accidents.

Yesterday morning KiwiRail released its findings on an accident at the Morningside pedestrian level crossing in Auckland, in which a woman using a wheelchair was seriously injured after she was hit by a train.

“Most importantly we want to express our ongoing sympathy for the woman who suffered such a horrific incident, and commend the two others who ran to her assistance on that morning,” said Wayne Butson, General Secretary of the Rail and Maritime Transport Union.

“Level crossings of all types are high stress points for rail staff operating rail locomotives and vehicles. Nobody comes to work wanting to kill or seriously injure another human being. We need to learn from this incident and make sure it doesn’t happen again.”

“In our view, the best decision that could be made is for full grade separation, such as over bridges or underpasses, to remove the risk inherent in crossing designs that force pedestrian interaction with trains which have no ability to stop at short notice.”

“We were deeply concerned then, and still are, about the impact on safety and performance from the budget and staffing cuts to Infrastructure and Engineering. KiwiRail’s own internal business plan stated it would lead to a decline in track standard.”

Wayne Butson said that level crossing design should not be left to rail operators.

“Level crossings should be prescribed by the regulator. That they aren’t is symptomatic of the light handed co-regulatory model which governs the rail industry in New Zealand.”

The systemic failings of KiwiRail’s systems to the track asset database exposed in the released KiwiRail report are illustrative of the legacy of privatisation, Wayne Butson said.

Today’s independent taskforce report must serve as a blueprint for the future of workplace health and safety, the Rail & Maritime Transport Union said today.

Today the Independent Taskforce on Workplace Health and Safety released its report to the government.

“This report has been carefully and methodically put together and deserves to be implemented in full,” said Wayne Butson, RMTU General Secretary.

“The recognition in the report that health and safety will only work effectively with the full participation of workers, employers and government is welcome.”

“Members of our union work in a dangerous industry. They want to know that their workmates are free to return home safe and well at the end of their day.”

“As Hazel Armstrong’s book published this week has shown, when laws are shaped to protect the employer, and light handed co-regulatory safety models implemented, there are devastating consequences. The sorry tale of fatalities in rail in the 1990s will never be forgotten by many rail workers.”

The report calls for more effective coordination between the new health and safety body and the transport agencies that regulate health and safety in their areas.

But Wayne Butson said it would be better for rail to be removed from the NZ Transport Agency and reside in the specialist health and safety entity.

“It is very difficult for NZTA to be both the regulator and enforcer of health and safety in rail.”

“Rail operators require an approved safety case, but the approval of these may provide a defence to the employer in the event of a prosecution. Annual audits by NZTA review the compliance with the approved safety case, not workplace health and safety.”

“It is far preferable for rail to sit alongside other industries in the new specialist health and safety agency,” he said.

Rail and port workers say an ability for employers to opt out of multi employer collective agreements sends a message that a race to the bottom on wages is acceptable.

“The rail MECA employment agreement is the largest in the rail industry and covers over 3,000 workers at NZ Railways Corporation, Ontrack Infrastructure and KiwiRail,” said Wayne Butson, General Secretary of the Rail and Maritime Transport Union.

“Rail workers fought hard to achieve this document. Multi Employment Collective Agreements are a vital tool to prevent competition amongst employers for a race to the bottom with wages and conditions.”

“The government is sending a clear signal that they are happy for employers to try and opt out of industry standards.”

Wayne Butson said the removal of the provision where new workers benefit from union-negotiated conditions for the first 30 days while they consider joining the union was another signal that the government has given up on a high wage economy.

“Minister of Labour Simon Bridges is being a bit cute with his language over this. To say workers are ‘forced’ into these conditions for the first 30 days is disingenuous.”

“As we know, union collective agreements have better pay rises than the national average, as Victoria University research has demonstrated, year after year.”

“All the government is doing with these changes is putting more barriers in the way of workers coming together to improve their pay and conditions and to lift New Zealand’s living standards.”

“What happened to National’s bright future?” he said.

]]>RMTU: Nationwide events for Workers Memorial Day on Sundayhttps://thedailyblog.co.nz/2013/04/26/rmtu-nationwide-events-for-workers-memorial-day-on-sunday/
Fri, 26 Apr 2013 03:26:19 +0000http://thedailyblog.co.nz/?p=9767
Events around the country and the launch of a book on rail safety will mark Workers Memorial Day this year, the Rail & Maritime Transport Union said today.

Rail and port workers hold events to mark Workers Memorial Day every year, and this year the memorial service at KiwiRail’s Lower Hutt workshops will also feature the launch of a new book by Hazel Armstrong: Your life for the job: New Zealand rail safety 1974 – 2000

The book documents the spate of fatalities that lead up to the 2000 Tranz Rail inquiry, and concludes that the appalling rate of death and injury on New Zealand’s railways in the 1990s was ‘the story of de-regulation and privatisation.’

Workplace accidents are absolutely preventable, Wayne Butson said.

“No loss of life at work is ever acceptable. Workers Memorial Day is a time to recommit to fighting for the best possible health and safety standards so that workers return home safely each night to their loved ones.”

“This requires the commitment of workers and employers to change our attitudes and behaviours, and to speak out if we see an unsafe act or bad systems.”

27 RMTU rail and port members had been killed at work since 1994, he said.

“It is no accident that NZ workers are 6 times more likely to be injured or killed at work than UK workers or 2 times in the case of Australian workers. It is the direct result of ineffectual regulation and a dogged obsession by our legislators for light handed co-regulatory safety models.”

Workers’ Memorial Day was first observed in 1989 in Canada, and now on April 28 each year hundreds of communities and worksites around the world honour those who have died or been injured at work.

Details of other RMTU events are below. Further events are being held around the country, notably the Council of Trade Unions memorial service for forestry workers in Auckland, which rail workers in Auckland will be attending (see below)

Details of events.

All events are on Sunday 28 April, except Port of Napier (on Friday) and Tauranga (Monday)

Auckland – rail workers will be taking part in the Council of Trade Unions memorial service for the families of forestry workers who have died. 12 noon, Maritime Club, 68 Anzac Avenue, Auckland. More details are here:Hamilton – remembrance service at the memorial garden commencing 12 noon, within Te Rapa KiwiRail depot.Tauranga/Mount Maunganui – Memorial Service at 11.30am on Monday 29 April, at the memorial stone by the Rata Street gatehousePort Napier –a ceremony was held at the memorial wall at the eastern entrance to the port at 10am this morning (Friday 26 April).Lower Hutt – service starts 11.50am, Kiwirail Hutt workshops, Elizabeth Street, Moera. Held in the workshop memorial garden. Hazel Armstrong’s book will be launched at this event, as well as an unveiling of a relocated memorial to Wellington shunter Jack Neha.Christchurch – service 11.30am – 12.30pm, held in the Reserve behind where Science Alive building used to be, at 392 Moorhouse Avenue.Dunedin – service at the memorial garden (corner Princes and Manor Place) commences 11.50am.

Listening to the debate over NZ Aluminium Smelters in Southland made me wonder why the government is prepared to stand up for some parts of the economy but not others.

It seems Hobbits and aluminium are in, but rail engineering is definitely out.

Additionally we have recent statements from Steven Joyce on government procurement who wants New Zealand firms consulted before tender documents are prepared while government is taking a ‘whole of life’ analysis of procurement.

I suppose it’s better late than never. By wearing his economic development minister’s hat, Joyce has finally realised there are plenty of benefits in using government procurement as a lever in the economy.
He certainly didn’t seem to hold this view when he was transport minister.

My union represents rail workers. Nearly a hundred of them lost their jobs from Hillside workshops in Dunedin last year because of a lack of work – driven largely by the attitudes of Joyce and Co that the cheapest price possible should be the driving force for procurement.

We said at the time that the business case for building our trains at home went well past the jobs of Dunedin (and Lower Hutt) workers, but extended to a significant contribution to GDP and the wider engineering cluster industry in and around Hillside.

KiwiRail is owned by New Zealanders and they needed a much stronger steer from their shareholding ministers to back Kiwi jobs and industry, rather than go for the cheapest option, whatever the cost down the line.

They didn’t get that steer. Joyce refused to step in as the shareholding minister and advise KiwiRail to take a ‘whole of life’ analysis with building Auckland’s trains.

Instead they opted for the cheapest products available. They didn’t even make a bid for the electrification of Auckland’s trains or the flat top wagons, and the country lost nearly 100 Dunedin workers. Since then KiwiRail has sold Hillside with the loss of the remaining 143 jobs.

Fast forward to this year, when Joyce announced tentative steps by the government to update its procurement policy to favour local firms.

This is a start, but it’s nowhere near what our competitors are doing.

The Australian government requires contract tenderers to implement Australian Industry Participation Plans for projects over $20 million. These set out much more detail about how local firms can contribute to government contracts. I’d like to think we were moving in this direction too and, yes, I remain hopeful.

Today’s announcement that KiwiRail will suspend its Christchurch-Picton passenger service, the TranzCoastal, over the winter months is both shortsighted and misguided, says the Rail and Maritime Transport Union (RMTU).

‘Since the Christchurch earthquakes of 2010 and 2012 KiwiRail’s Christchurch based passenger services have suffered a decline in customer numbers, but this summer has seen the reversal of that trend, and it does not make sense to stop running this train over the winter,’ said RMTU General Secretary Wayne Butson.

‘What Christchurch needs right now is a demonstration by Government owned companies like KiwiRail that they have faith in the rebuild and the resurgence of the tourism business in Christchurch. KiwiRail’s TranzScenic passenger services are iconic and together provide a blue chip tourist attraction all year round,’ he said.

‘There are plenty of businesses in the South Island who benefit from the tourist dollars that services like the TranzCoastal bring in,’ he said.

‘To suspend the service over the winter months is short-sighted, it sends a signal to tourism operators overseas that our own Government lacks faith in the rebuild of Christchurch and the resurgence in tourism in the South Island and beyond’, he said.

‘We acknowledge that passenger numbers will be down over the winter but it is misguided to suspend the service as KiwiRail will lose ground that it will need to make up in the Spring,’ he said.

‘Our union is pleased that no redundancies will result from the suspension of the service but we would have been much happier to see it continue to build on the momentum it has gained this summer as we enter the winter months,’ he said.

]]>https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2013/04/02/kiwirail-tranzcoastal-suspension-misguided-and-shortsighted-says-rail-union/feed/6Procurement policy not just about a fair shake of the stickhttps://thedailyblog.co.nz/2013/03/08/procurement-policy-not-just-about-a-fair-shake-of-the-stick/
https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2013/03/08/procurement-policy-not-just-about-a-fair-shake-of-the-stick/#commentsFri, 08 Mar 2013 00:16:13 +0000http://thedailyblog.co.nz/?p=3317

Government procurement policy needs to be much more than just giving firms a “fair shake of the stick” as Steve Joyce put it this morning, the union for rail workers said.

This morning Steven Joyce commented on proposed changes to government procurement policy, including requirements that New Zealand firms are consulted before tender documents are prepared, and government taking a ‘whole of life’ analysis of procurement.

Wayne Butson, General Secretary of the Rail and Maritime Transport Union, said it was galling to hear Steven Joyce talk about whole of life cost analysis, after he so flatly rejected exactly that approach in the 2010 BERL report on the Auckland train electrification project.

“Steven Joyce refused to step in as shareholding minister and give KiwiRail a steer to take on a whole of life analysis with the build of Auckland’s trains, and opted instead for a focus on the cheapest products available.”

“He then assured rail workers on Close Up in May 2010 that they’d have a good chance of building the rolling stock, but that job went overseas also, and Dunedin lost its Hillside workshops.”

“As Dunedin workers, business leaders and the City Council all pointed out, value is not just upfront costs. It is also about ongoing repairs and maintenance work and the primary and secondary jobs that are created and industries supported when goods are manufactured locally.”

“KiwiRail suffered maintenance problems with its flat top wagons made by China CNR, and also had major commissioning issues with the DL locomotives in 2010, relating to their suspension, traction motors and noise.”

“In fact, in the month of February last passed, of the 20 locomotives from China in the KiwiRail network, there were 3 faults registered. Compare this to 6 faults with the 85 locomotives in operation that were built in 1951 – and we can see that on a proportional basis, the recent China built locomotives are causing many more headaches for KiwiRail than those built 62 years ago!”

“It is also rubbish to hide behind trade rules. All our trading competitor countries have much stronger government procurement rules.”

Wayne Butson said the RMTU would carefully analyse the government’s proposals when they were issued, and said that to be of any use, they needed to take the lead from other countries like Australia, where Industry Participation Plans set out in detail how local firms should be prioritised.

]]>https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2013/03/08/procurement-policy-not-just-about-a-fair-shake-of-the-stick/feed/1When workers never come home – why safety standards are no jokehttps://thedailyblog.co.nz/2013/03/08/when-workers-never-come-home-why-safety-standards-are-no-joke/
Thu, 07 Mar 2013 19:40:58 +0000http://thedailyblog.co.nz/?p=3271This quarter’s Rail and Maritime Transport Union magazine The Transport Worker has a special focus on the Union’s health and safety concerns within KiwiRail.

A factual report on an incident in the Kaimai Tunnel sets the tone. Two groups of contractors, undertaking track work, were overcome by the fumes they were creating and had to evacuate the tunnel in a state of distress. There had been a total lack of compliance with KiwRail’s own internal requirements for tunnel entry and work nor were they supervised by KiwiRail staff – another safety requirement. One of the groups was undertaking core rail work – a clear demonstration of the validity of the Union’s statements of fact that rail maintenance tasks remain unchanged following staffing cuts. Last year cuts were made to the infrastructure group affecting permanent rail workers and the RMTU predicted that there would be increased contracting out and consequently more risks to safety on the network.

There are other warning signs. In our view KiwiRail’s drive for commercial profitability and on-time performance is encouraging workers to cut corners and take risks. What else can you say when the company erects clocks in its workplace with stickers on their faces stating “We live and die by the clock”. Additionally, they published a league table of on-time performance in the company newsletter exhorting staff to do better.

Don’t get me wrong, I am not against improved on-time performance and growing customer satisfaction rather, it is about the messaging and getting the balance right. It is outrageous that in the year 2000 the rail industry was the subject of a Ministerial Inquiry into health and safety with five deaths within seven months and 22 serious accidents between the years 1993 and 2000. There is no question that during those dark days the law, the regulator and the employer failed rail workers and their families. Similar circumstances stood behind the tragedy at Pike River where 29 workers lost their lives. It appears to me, and probably to the rest of you, that Pike River Coal also put profitability ahead of safety. Conditions are now almost identical for forestry workers where safety is being set aside for profit. I urge you to support the campaign called: What killed Ken Callow and view the video at whatkilledkencallow.org.nz

It is essential that we all commit to fighting for improved workplace safety and remember the lessons from the past.

To this end the RMTU is supporting the publication of a book titled ‘Your Life For The Job’ authored by Hazel Armstrong, a longstanding campaigner for improved healthy and safe workplaces. The book tells the story of rail from 1987 through to the Ministerial Inquiry and reminds us of the gradual and insidious erosion of safety within. It exposes the collaboration between Government political figures, officials and company management and is an important story. It must not be forgotten nor should the sands of time be allowed to bury these details. The book will be launched by the RMTU on the day that we commemorate International Workers’ Memorial Day on 28 April. The RMTU has been a strong supporter of marking this day around NZ since its inception in 1995 and many rail and port memorials have been established throughout the country. We are also expecting the current Independent Health and Safety Taskforce report to be released a few days later and we will watch with anticipation to see their recommendation for the law, the regulator, employers and workers – the four cornerstones for a safer workplace.

It is no mistake that Kiwis are currently twice as likely to die at work than our Australian cousins and six times more likely than workers in the United Kingdom.

Wayne Butson is the general secretary of the Rail and Maritime Transport Union

Wow! This is my first contribution to The Daily Blog and it is with considerable apprehension that I put my finger to the keyboard given the company I am keeping in this blogosphere.

Congratulations to Martyn for his vision and I look forward to being able to contribute to the debate around removing this sorry and cot-case Government from the Treasury benches.

In the areas that I spend my daily working life this Government has been a disaster: Following its re-nationalisation and the promise that brought, rail is now going backwards while waterfront working conditions have sunk to dire depths with vulnerable workers being exploited by non-union stevedores or hire firms more than at any time in the past.

Johnny, the not-so-funny clown and other members of his circus troop, have to go if we are to make progress as a nation toward economic and social prosperity.

After listening to the news the other day I thought that four years on from the global financial crisis not a lot has changed and NZ remains mired with high unemployment and sluggish growth while accountability remains as rare today as it was in 2008. In 2008, unfettered greed and rapacious capitalism brought the world’s financial system to the brink of collapse and ruin. Simple taxpaying folk around the world had to put their hands into their pockets or agree to burden nations with financial debt spanning multi-generations, and all to bail out the self-same greedy corporations, stabilise financial markets and generally get the ship back on an even keel.

I don’t know about you, but I haven’t seen a lot of accountability. The rogues who played fast and loose with credit and other dodgy instruments haven’t paid, there’s been no curtailment in fat bonus cheques – despite poor financial results.

In NZ the gravy train appears to roll on for some. When the sorry financial state of Solid Energy, the Government’s pin up poster child of it’s doomed asset sales programme, finally made it into the public domain it became clear that this was a poorly performing coal company. Yet it still managed to pay out a disgusting $23m in bonuses to clearly undeserving executives. This is proof that there are two forms of remuneration theory at work in our corridors of power and influence:

• One is that all goods and services MUST be purchased at the lowest possible cost either by paying workers the minimum wage or by buying goods from suppliers who pay this or less to workers; and

• Two, that those who make these choices must be paid at the highest possible rates and, if successful, paid even bigger bonuses.

How you can possibly qualify for $23m in bonuses whilst driving a company’s balance sheet into the ground beggars belief?

Another example of the remuneration gap between management and workers is the recent $600,000 bonus paid to Lyttelton Port CEO Peter Davie which doubled his pay to a cool $1.02m. This was at a time when workers were receiving single digit percentage increases. But to be fair, and for full disclosure I do have to concede that the port workers also received a black crockery cup which, when full of hot beverage, congratulates them for achieving 300,000 TEUs (a TEU is a standard 20ft container) through the port. They also received a small wooden plaque made from a piece of one of the shattered Lyttelton wharves recognising their contribution during the earthquake in keeping the operation going. Some may appreciate this recognition more than Davie does his $600,000 or, as I would suspect, they might prefer that he got a cup and a plaque as well.

We can all put a new line in the sand for accountability in NZ. It is time for the Johnny circus to pack up and leave town next election day.

Wayne Butson is the general secretary of the Rail and Maritime Transport Union

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]]>https://thedailyblog.co.nz/2013/02/28/the-reality-of-working-life/feed/6About Wayne Butsonhttps://thedailyblog.co.nz/2013/02/22/about-wayne-butson/
Fri, 22 Feb 2013 06:03:38 +0000http://thedailyblog.co.nz/?p=1755Wayne Butson is the general secretary of the Rail and Maritime Transport Union – a position he has held since 1999. As General Secretary of the largest specialist transport union in New Zealand he is a frequent contributor to news and current affairs programmes and is often consulted by MPs from the left (and less frequently from right) regarding New Zealand’s Port and Rail sector, rail history, the source of its current woes and ideas for a future with a thriving rail network.

He began his union involvement when he joined rail in 1974 in Invercargill, starting at the bottom and working his way to grade 1 locomotive engineer based in Wellington. In 1990 he slipped sideways to become a full time union organiser and begin his heartfelt fight for workers’ rights – a mission he hasn’t let slip since.

He was schooled at Southland College and Waitaki Boys High before studying for a diploma in industrial relations at Victoria University and other further education qualifications. He is a member of the Institute of Directors, holds a certificate in company direction and hold current directorships and trusteeships.

His knowledge of the NZ rail and port sectors, his commitment to a fair go for workers and his dogged determination to fight for the under-dog has been recognised in many forums and working parties in New Zealand and overseas.

When he has time to relax you may find him either salt water or freshwater or boating.

He is married with two daughters and, quite recently, welcomed his first grandchild.